Czech billionaire ex-prime minister Andrej Babiš was attacked by an elderly person with crutches during his ANO party’s campaign in the Moravian-Silesian region in northeastern Czechia.

Populist ANO is a heavy favourite to win the October parliamentary elections, positioning Babiš to return to power as the country’s PM after he faced the largest mass demonstrations in Czech history in 2019 and narrowly lost elections to a united opposition bloc in 2021. However, he remains a divisive figure. 

“I can confirm that Andrej Babiš was attacked during a [campaign] meeting in Dobrá. He was hit by a metal object on the head from behind and then left for hospital examination,” ANO’s spokesperson Martin Vodička was quoted as saying by Czech Television (CT).

“Thank you, everyone, for [your] support, hopefully, I will be ok,” Babiš later posted on his Facebook and X social media profiles, adding that he is cancelling tomorrow’s programme as he is “awaiting results of [medical] examinations”.

The coal mining and industrial Moravian-Silesian region is one of ANO’s main strongholds in Czechia, where ANO scores exceptionally high in poorer outlying regions. Babiš is also the lead candidate in the Moravian-Silesian region.

“It simply happened at lightning speed, nobody had expected it at the moment from the man, because he looked like a normal supporter,” ANO MP Igor Hendrych described the attack to the online news outlet Seznam Zprávy.

“All of a sudden, we noticed he began to hit Mr. Babiš with those crutches out of the blue,” Hendrych said, adding that “I stood by Mr. Babiš, grabbed him by an arm and took him aside.”

The suspect, described as being of “senior age”, was apprehended by police on the scene, and the incident is being investigated as rioting. The police have not ruled out re-assessing the incident during the investigations, CT noted.   

"Policemen, who regularly attend to their duties in the vicinity of such events, have responded immediately and apprehended the departing man,” police spokesperson Soňa Štětínská told CT.

Czech ruling and opposition politicians alike have condemned the attack, but Babiš’s deputy, Karel Havlíček, blamed the joint coalition of three ruling parties, Spolu, ruling Stan and the liberal Pirate Party and what he called their “hateful campaign” for the attack.

The attacker was later interviewed by an online news outlet Novinky.cz, which described him as "handicapped pensioner Vladislav."

Vladislav said he was angered by the lies Babiš was supposed to say in public, particularly by his claims about constructing new ice stadiums, stating "that was too much,” and that in the past, Babiš “was supposed to promise that every district town would have a roofed ice stadium."  

Ice hockey is the most popular sport in Czechia, according to several surveys, including the June survey by Incomind and Go4insight agencies, and politicians frequently photograph themselves at ice hockey matches and make pledges of more investments into ice hockey infrastructure. 

“I stepped aside and slammed him across his arm like this,” Vladislav described his assault on Babiš for Novinky.cz, adding that when he was about to strike again, “two lads went after me – heavy weight.”